Meet the Parents

Rating:
Summary: Contrived, yes, but Enjoyable, yes!
Review: Hillarious movie for younger crowds. My friends in their early 20's all thought this movie was great, probably becaue it deals with timely issues of impressing parents with your newest fling.

The scenes may be a bit contrived...but come on...loosen up a little bit. It's supposed to be sort of slapstick. The Vacation/Chevy Chase movies are contrived...but they still make me laugh.

Definitely a more mature Stiller movie that Something about Mary...although not by much. Just TRY to watch it without laughing at Ben Stiller's ridiculous predicaments.

Rating:
Summary: Very funny, stupid, but funny!
Review: I'm not a big fan of Stiller or De Niro, but they were good! Tha chemistry between them was really good for this kind of movie! A good mix that made tha funny jokes even more funny! I loved tha part in the airport when it was empty and tha lie-detector test. This movie is fun for tha whole family! If you like funny, you'll like this!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent comedy starring Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller!
Review: MEET THE PARENTS, in my opinion, is an excellent comedy starring Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller. My favorite parts were when Greg (Ben Stiller) accidentally hit Debbie (Nicole DeHuff) in the eye and nose with a volleyball and when he verbally abused the flight attendant (Kali Rocha), which resulted in an interrogation from Norm (Bernie Sheredy) and then Jack (Robert De Niro), and when he imitated a bugle trumpeting a fanfare right before saying, "People, people, people, come get your revised itineraries." I thought that he was REALLY psychotic. This was because he couldn't seem to stop messing things up for Greg. Plus, he expected his daughters' (Nicole DeHuff and Teri Polo) boyfriends (Thomas McCarthy and Ben Stiller) to meet him and Dina (Blythe Danner) and then ask his permission before proposing to them. If you ask me, Pam (Teri Polo) looked VERY beautiful in all the dressy clothing she wore -- Especially the maid of honor dress she wore at Bob (Thomas McCarthy) and Debbie's wedding. I especially liked Jack's tuxedo -- Especially with the top hat. If you ask me, that gave it a nice touch. The ending, however, made no sense to me. It's hard for me to explain why. In conclusion, I HIGHLY recommend this smash hit to all you Robert De Niro or Ben Stiller fans out there who have not seen it. You're in for a real treat and a LOT of laughs, so, go out there, rent it or buy it, kick back with a friend, and watch it.

Rating:
Summary: What a terrible movie
Review: I honestly cannot understand how anybody could write anything positive about this movie. The jokes are totally corny and predictable, even Robert De Niro's presence couldn't save it. That should say enough. Stay far away from this movie.

Rating:
Summary: Expecting humor... where was it?
Review: "The Blair Witch Project" had more laughs than this film.

Major disappointment.

Rating:
Summary: great comedy
Review: very funny movie, i laughed so many times.

Rating:
Summary: Why DTS??
Review: The movie was a 1 timer at best just ok with some parts being funny... However i cannot figure out why this movie was released in both 5.1dd and dts? one or the other would have sufficed.. in short this movie is just a rental..

Rating:
Summary: MEET THE PARENTS
Review: THIS IS AN EXAMPLE OF A SLAP-STICK COMEDY THAT JUST DOESN'T MAKE IT. THE TIMING IS POOR AND TIMING IS WHAT COMEDY IS ALL ABOUT. I WONDER WHAT THE DIRECTOR WAS THINKING ABOUT AND THE CAST DIRECTOR WHEN THEY TRIED TO TURN ROBERT DE NIRO INTO A COMEDIAN. HE JUST DOES NOT HAVE THE ABILITY TO CREATE COMEDY IN HIS FACE. THE LOOK COMES OFF PHONEY.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing, Particularly in its Moral
Review: For a movie that did so well that they wound up doing those obnoxious commercials where they tell you how you should go see the film again because you loved the scene where the vase fell just so much... I was expecting to be truly entertained. But I was only mildly entertained.

The big funny scenes seemed to stiff and forced and formulaic. They were not without humor but neither did they brim with it. De Niro was good but for the most part a bit too good at being unlikable and threatening.

But worst for me was the assumption of the film that the parents of this girl MUST like whoever she happens to bring home. The fact that Ben Stiller LIES to her parents from the moment he meets them makes him a hero that I just didn't feel like rooting for. He does not earn their respect and so I don't see why the audience should support the girl's parents lowering their standards to give it to him. Yes, he is under duress from De Niro's character's demeanor, BUT we already know that he has approved of other men in his daughters' lives. Even if he has SOME "letting go" issues that does not mean he should rubber stamp with approval just any body that his daughter brings home. And I could not see why he SHOULD like Ben Stiller's character; what were his virtues precisely?

These might sound like over-critical observations but I think they are precisely what make a comedy fail or succeed. Comedies are funny when their protagonists are worth sympathizing with as they suffer for their flaws or because of unfortunate circumstances. There must be redeeming qualities or they must learn from the comedic results of their erroneous ways and represent our struggle to come to terms with such persistent and irrational failings. In the end of this film, in contrast, I felt like the message was that Ben Stiller did not need to grow but that De Niro was supposed to just "suck it up" that his daughter loved this guy. De Niro was the one that needed to change, not Stiller.

I just didn't like the attitude of the film, the assumption we are expected to have in running future spouses by parental inspection that one should expect a rubber stamp and that any thing else would be unnecessary harshness. Are their some inappropriately critical parents or overprotective or unsympathetic ones, I am sure there are. Just illustrate them in their particularity in an instance in which their injustice is obvious and not in a case where their concerns are rather valid ones, like about the integrity of the person their child is to marry.

With all this said, there are a few "just" laughs along the way, that are worth watching for, including ones in a pool volleyball game and those involving Ben Stiller's unfairly condescended to career prospects. But overall, I was disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: Undemanding comic entertainment
Review: A male nurse, the unfortunately named Gaye Focker, (played by a top-form Ben Stiller) is invited by his fiancee to spend a weekend with his future in-laws at their out-of-town retreat. Predictably, everything goes terribly and, hilariously, wrong, as Focker, in ineptly trying to ingratiate himself with his fiancee's father (Robert de Niro) actually makes things a great deal worse. His luck turns for the bad once he realises that the father is not, as he assumed, a rare flower expert, but a retired CIA man, a psychologist, interrogator and human lie-detector! This undemanding comedy contains a number of good laughs, and shows how a serious actor such as Robert de Niro can excel even in light-hearted roles.